We probably could have run from Compass Cay down to Emerald Bay Marina in a day but we did not want to push it so we stopped in at the Cave Cay Marina. If we had run all the way to Long Island from Cay there was a good chance we would have arrived at dark and that would be a recipe for issues given the waters were unfamiliar to us.
So here we are at Emerald Bay and the forecast for Exuma Sound is for very choppy rough water for the foreseeable future, like at least a week. Like I said when I started out that means we have plenty of time to explore the island and we set out by renting a car. Having been to a number of other countries and driven I was thinking I was ready for this. Abaco, Bermuda and various other islands all require driving on the left side of the road. But this was the first time that I was delivered a car that had the controls on the right side. What the heck was I supposed to do? Drive in reverse looking backwards so I was ok with this? It was bad enough I originally sat down in the passenger's seat and wondered what was going on. With a certain amount of trepidation I got out and hopped in the correct side of the car (in this land) and started up the engine. For one reason or another I found myself hammering the gas pedal when starting. I have no idea why it just happened several times.
So we set out on the wrong side of the road with me driving on the wrong side of the car. Deb often wondered if she was going off the road as a result of my abilities. After some time we found ourselves at the end of Little Exuma where we turned around and went back to Santana's which was close by at this point. We were greeted by big warm smiles and after a review of the menu board Deb chose shrimp and I went for the grouper. Both were batter dipped and fried to perfection. With an ice cold Kalik to wash it down life was good. The view was amazing and as usual capturing the colors with a photo was challenging. I was surprised to see license plates from U.S. cars and various states hanging from the ceiling.
Many were obviously still valid and looked authentic. Just about all of the far flung states were represented so it looks like the notion you are from a remote frost ridden place like Alaska won't mean you would be welcomed any differently than someone from Florida. The license plate contributions, like the hand made and painted name boards on Boo Boo Hill and Compass Cay work much better than the arrogantly placed stickers the some folks slap up all over the place. It seems some people have no respect for anyone's property and they feel a need to express their presence with these oval shaped stickers about 5 inches long. They get slapped up everywhere. Canal lock walls, bathrooms, bars, fences, poles, seats, walls, you name it. People that slap these things up could care less as long as they make their visit known. Fortunately places like Compass Cay and Santana's peel them down from time to time. Works for us.
At this point we were done with the South end of Great Exuma and we drove to the other extreme where we located some other establishments. We wound up locating Paradise Bay so we decided to check this place out once the "drive" was done.Fortunately the car was returned in the same condition it was delivered, and we were once again on foot. Since Paradise Bay is a short one mile walk away from Freedom we decided to hike on over for lunch. It's a pretty cool place to hang out for lunch but we were both left with the impression that they squeezed too much into the property. The views from the infinity pool and dining area were both blocked by a pair of cabins leaving a subset of the beach and water to look at. In spite of this the pool is inviting and lunch was quite good and reasonably priced, especially for the Bahamas.
Perhaps being socked in by weather we do not want to experience "on the bank" is not so bad after all.
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